Demirović: “The task now is to fight back”

Reaction after the 1-0 defeat to Stuttgart

FC Augsburg succumbed to a 1-0 defeat against VfB Stuttgart in front of a sell-out crowd. Read all the reaction to Friday evening’s game.

Ermedin Demirović: “It was a difficult game, Stuttgart are extremely good in possession. But as a team we gave everything. We really defended our goal well, which makes it even more gutting to concede a goal like that. We were riding on a wave of success for a few weeks, after four defeats in a row now, the task is to fight back, even when it is difficult. No-one expects anything from us in Leverkusen, but we want to throw everything at it once again.”

Niklas Dorsch: “We didn’t play badly. The first half was good, then we conceded an unnecessary goal. If you fall behind against Stuttgart, it will be difficult. In the end it was a question of the way we played. Today we can look in the mirror and say that we gave everything. We know that we have nothing to lose in Leverkusen and want to finish on the right note in our last game.”

Kevin Mbabu: “When you don’t have many chances you have to use those you do efficiently. We didn’t manage to do that today. Still, we stuck together as a team over the course of the team and the support from the fans was also outstanding, like in the last few months. We would like to thank them for that.”

Jess Thorup (FC Augsburg head coach): “After conceding eleven goals in our last three games, we worked a lot in the week on our defensive preparedness, staying compact and being aggressive. We did this really well against a strong Stuttgart team. Stuttgart didn’t have any big chances initially, then we gave a goal away much too easily after a long ball. Even if we would like to have won in our last home, it was an improvement in performance. Defensively, it was a decent performance. We wanted to stay compact as a unit, you saw that on the pitch and we can build on that in the future.”

Sebastian Hoeneß (VfB Stuttgart head coach): “We wanted to go into the game with a lot of concentration and be focussed – we managed this from the very first minute. We achieved what we set out to do: We wanted to control the game and allow our opponents to create as little as possible. We managed to do that over large stretches of the game. In the first half we didn’t have all too many clear-cut chances, but I was pleased overall. In the second half we had at least this one moment with Serhou Guirassy. We were also dangerous after that, so it was a fair win.”